Chiang Mai

Wat Chedi Luang, originally uploaded by Sheila's Flickr photos.

I decided to have a lazy day today after the 3 day trek and had a leisurely breakfast, chatting to Selim and Kyriakos. Iza and Michal came down later – all four are leaving today.

I had a Thai massage and the lady commented that some of my muscles were ‘very hard’ from the trekking – I wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad!

There are temples all around Chiang Mai and I visited Wat Chedi Luang and Wat Phan Tao which are not far from Gap’s House. Wat Chedi Luang is about 600 years old and is the tallest in Thailand. Various improvements were made over the centuries, including a niche used to enshrine the Emerald Buddha, but after heavy rain and an earthquake only half of the pagoda remained and it wasn’t restored until 1992.

I had intended going to Wat Phra Singh but after lunch was so tired I had to go back for a 2 hour siesta! Gap’s House do an excellent vegetarian buffet for 90 baht (about £2) so I stayed at the Guest House as it was raining quite heavy.